June 14 (Bloomberg) -- The United Nations labor
organization lifted 13-year-old restrictions on Myanmar that may
clear the way for the former dictatorship to sell more goods to
the European Union.

The International Labor Organization decided yesterday to
remove restrictions on assistance, in place since 1999, that are
part of punitive measures the EU has cited to block Myanmar from
receiving preferential market access. Myanmar and the ILO agreed
on a strategy to eliminate forced labor before 2015, according
to a statement yesterday from the Geneva-based organization.

The ILO “has lifted its restrictions on the full
participation of Myanmar in its activities and decided to review
the progress on the elimination of forced labor in the country
next year,” it said in the statement.

Myanmar has passed laws to allow labor unions, criminalize
forced labor and create a dispute-resolution mechanism as part
of the country’s shift to democracy since President Thein Sein
won a 2010 election that ended about five decades of military
rule. Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whose by-election win
in April prompted the U.S. and EU to suspend sanctions, is
scheduled to address the ILO’s annual conference in Geneva today
on her first trip to Europe since 1988.

The EU has excluded Myanmar exporters from its Generalized
System of Preferences, known as GSP, which grants 176 developing
countries and territories lower duties on goods sold to the
bloc. The ban, in place since 1997, cited the ILO’s challenge to
Myanmar’s commitment to end forced labor.

‘New Era’

EU foreign ministers said in an April 23 statement they
support lifting GSP restrictions on Myanmar “as soon as
possible once the required conditions are fulfilled, following
the assessment of the International Labor Organization.”

Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, exported 127 million
euros worth of goods to EU countries in 2010, according to the
bloc’s statistics. The EU represented about 2 percent of
Myanmar’s trade, the data showed.

Myanmar’s political changes “are concrete and
irreversible,” Aung Kyi, a cabinet minister overseeing labor
issues, said in a June 7 speech to the ILO in Geneva, according
to a transcript of his remarks. “Myanmar is now in new era. As
such, Myanmar should be seen from new perspective and
encouraged.”